- Joined
- Jul 14, 2009
- Messages
- 913 (0.17/day)
- Location
- Baltimore, MD
| System Name | Cool Runnings Mark 2 |
|---|---|
| Processor | i7 4770k No OC |
| Motherboard | MSI Z87 MPower |
| Cooling | Noctua NH-D14 |
| Memory | GSkill TridentX 2400MHz 32GB |
| Video Card(s) | MSI GTX 1070 Ti Duke, EVGA GTX 780 AC+ |
| Storage | Crucial MX500 1TB SSD, 3 more HDDs |
| Display(s) | 2x MSI 32" 2560 x 1440 144Hz Optix MAG321CQR, Acer G276HLDbd Black 27" 6ms |
| Case | Corsair 600t |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX850 |
| Mouse | Razer DeathAdder |
| Keyboard | Steelseries Merc Stealth |
| Software | Win10 Pro 64-bit |
Hey guys, this is the project log from the rig that was discussed here.
TL;DR final specs from that thread were:
CPU
Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W Qu...
CPU Cooler
MSI Z87 MPOWER Max LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6G...
RAM
G.SKILL Trident X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model F3-2400C10Q-32GTX
SSD
SAMSUNG MZ-7PD256BW - Newegg.com
VC
EVGA ACX Cooler 03G-P4-2784-KR GeForce GTX 780 3GB...
Case
Corsair Graphite Series 600T Silver Steel structur...
Blue-Ray
LITE-ON IHBS112-04 Black 12X Blu-ray Burner with B...
Monitor
Acer G276HLDbd Black 27" 6ms (GTG) Widescreen LED...
Power Supply
CORSAIR HX Series HX850 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2...
So, lets start from the beginning. Saturday night I got really impatient, and even though I still have not received my video card (should be in tomorrow) I decided to go ahead and start the build, and use my GTX 285 from my current rig.
Here is a picture of everything, except the video card (back ordered) and some additional HDDs and fan I had not yet bought.
Here is the inside of the case. At first, I really liked this case because I could mount my H100i rad on the top, there was plenty of room for cable management, and I dont have to take the MB out to mount a heatsink.
The first thing I did to the case was remove the top 200mm fan, to make room for my H100i radiator and fans.
Next, I moved the fan grommets and installed 4 additional ones to accommodate the 2 120mm fans.
Quick pic of the MB, still in the box, and all the things that came with it.
MB installed.
I had a hell of a time getting the MB to fit correctly with the I/O panel. Then, after about 10minutes, I realized that I had to take out the plug protectors for the DP and HDMI slots. Everything fit like a glove after that
Samsung SSD and Software.
I was trying to install the SSD in the HDD slot thingys, but this damn hold point for a HDD got in the way. This is another thing that took me awhile to realize that I could easily remove.
Blue-Ray Drive, and installed. Love the true toolless design.
I have a lot of room under my Blue-Ray Drive. It is more than enough to fit another 120mm fan in there. Seems like a prime opportunity for a place to make a custom fan bracket.
Next comes the RAM.
After that I decided to get the PSU installed. I really like this Corsair HX850. It is not completely modular, but that is ok, because the harness you can not disconnect are harnesses you NEED, like the 24-pin MB connector, 2 PCI-E connectors, 8-pin MB connecter. I was also impressed that Corsair put the PSU in that sleeve thing. Seemed like kind of a waste imo, but a nice touch.
Next comes installation of the PSU.
This picture shows no bent pins! Keep this in mind!
CPU picture, Batch # L312B326
And the poor excuse for stock cooling.
CPU installed.
Time for my pride and joy, the Corsair H100i! I was really looking forward to using this cooler.
Installation of the backplate, and the front pins. Yes, I really used a socket drive to snug them up.
While going out into the shed to grab the socket driver from my "OH Shit" tool set, I found this smaller LED flashlight in my explorer. Much easier to use the the large thing I had been attempting to use.
Unfortunately, the H100i has bent fins right out of the box. I was torn between RMA'ing it, or trying to use it.
I was pretty frustrated at the bent fins problem, so I went to install the front panel connectors.
No spots for 1394 on my MB, though the plug CAN fit into the USB connector. I assume that that would not work?
Installing the audio plug for the front panel. I don't know what the difference between AC '97 and HDMI is, so I opted to use the HDMI connector.
Back to the H100i. I noticed that the two 8-pin connectors on the MB might conflict with the mounting of the radiator and fans. They did.
The radiator is much closer than it looks, and the fans could not be mounted on that side.
I tried to mount the fans on the other side of the mesh, on top of the radiator. Had this been successful, the fans would have been pulling fresh air from outside the case and pushing it through the rad (as an intake). Unfortunately, as seen of my build thread...
I wasnt worried about that, because I had planned on mounting the rad on the bottom, as an exhaust. But with the combination of the 600T case and the Z87 chipset, this could not happen due to the location of the 8-pin power connectors. /Sigh
So, I wasnt going to let this hold me back. I went ahead and installed the stock cooler, and decided to wait on OC'ing until my Noctua NH-D14 came in.
This is Fiesty, sleeping on my chair. Yes, he really does sleep like that.
So, I installed my GTX 285 (not shown), and tried to post. Lo and Behold, No Post. Well, that sucked. It finally dawned on my to check the debug code on the little indicator - debug code 55, early memory initialization. The manual provided no more explanation than that. So I put my VC back into my old rig, booted that up, and resolved to do some googling.
From what I read, the problem was either bad MB, old BIOS, bad RAM, bad CPU, or bent pins. Clearly I needed to do some more diagnosis on my own.
First things first, can I post with one stick of RAM? Yes, I could! So I went ahead and installed Windows 8 (which I love, btw), and updated the MB BIOS. Shut down, installed all 4 sticks again, and still no joy. Error Code 55.
Next, I tried different RAM slots. I quickly learned that I only had the error when using the second channel for the RAM (right 2 DIMM slots). Well, that ruled out RAM and BIOS as the issue. There is only one more thing that I can do to narrow this down, and that was to check for bent CPU Socket pins. I had nothing else to test the MB or CPU on.
Sure enough, there was a bent pin.
I still don't know how that pin got bent. I do know that in trying to fix it, I bent several other pins! Man, what a PAIN!
I eventually went to Walmart and got a small 5x magnifying glass w/ a build in LED, and some sowing needles. It took me several hours to finally get everything the way I wanted, but in the end, they were all straight.
I poped the CPU back in, took it out, and checked the pins for the umpteenth time. YES!! NO MORE BENT PINS!!! Put the CPU back in, with some fresh Antec thermal paste from the local Best Buy, and everything works like a charm!
So far, the MSI Command Center works well. I love how I can control all of my fans from the CC software (MB has connectors for 2 CPU fans and 3 SYS fans). However, the integrated RAMDisk software is absolutely HORRIBLE! I played with it for hours and never got it to work properly. I ended up downloading and using DataRAM RAMDisk, which works like a charm.
I still like the 600t case, but had I known that the H100i would not fit w/ a Z87 chipset, that the plastic tabs holding the panels on were so brittle (2 have broken off while I tried to remove the from plastic panel), and that I would not be using the integrated fan controller I would have gone with another option. What I do really like though is that since it has 2 200mm fans, I only have and only need 3 case fans, and I can run them all from my MB and control them from MSI CC, as previously stated. This also makes cable management easier.
One thing I am concerned about is the NH-D14 fitting over my current RAM. The heatsinks on the RAM sticks are not particular large or tall, so I'm hoping they ft right over the cooler. If not, I will remove the RAM coolers. I do not suspect that these RAM sticks will be getting very hot with the airflow in this case.
I will update then I get the GTX 780, NH-D14, and additional HDDs and fans installed!
Shout Out to Lia, Love ya girl
TL;DR final specs from that thread were:
CPU
Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz LGA 1150 84W Qu...
CPU Cooler
MSI Z87 MPOWER Max LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6G...
RAM
G.SKILL Trident X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model F3-2400C10Q-32GTX
SSD
SAMSUNG MZ-7PD256BW - Newegg.com
VC
EVGA ACX Cooler 03G-P4-2784-KR GeForce GTX 780 3GB...
Case
Corsair Graphite Series 600T Silver Steel structur...
Blue-Ray
LITE-ON IHBS112-04 Black 12X Blu-ray Burner with B...
Monitor
Acer G276HLDbd Black 27" 6ms (GTG) Widescreen LED...
Power Supply
CORSAIR HX Series HX850 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2...
So, lets start from the beginning. Saturday night I got really impatient, and even though I still have not received my video card (should be in tomorrow) I decided to go ahead and start the build, and use my GTX 285 from my current rig.
Here is a picture of everything, except the video card (back ordered) and some additional HDDs and fan I had not yet bought.
Here is the inside of the case. At first, I really liked this case because I could mount my H100i rad on the top, there was plenty of room for cable management, and I dont have to take the MB out to mount a heatsink.
The first thing I did to the case was remove the top 200mm fan, to make room for my H100i radiator and fans.
Next, I moved the fan grommets and installed 4 additional ones to accommodate the 2 120mm fans.
Quick pic of the MB, still in the box, and all the things that came with it.
MB installed.
I had a hell of a time getting the MB to fit correctly with the I/O panel. Then, after about 10minutes, I realized that I had to take out the plug protectors for the DP and HDMI slots. Everything fit like a glove after that
Samsung SSD and Software.
I was trying to install the SSD in the HDD slot thingys, but this damn hold point for a HDD got in the way. This is another thing that took me awhile to realize that I could easily remove.
Blue-Ray Drive, and installed. Love the true toolless design.
I have a lot of room under my Blue-Ray Drive. It is more than enough to fit another 120mm fan in there. Seems like a prime opportunity for a place to make a custom fan bracket.
Next comes the RAM.
After that I decided to get the PSU installed. I really like this Corsair HX850. It is not completely modular, but that is ok, because the harness you can not disconnect are harnesses you NEED, like the 24-pin MB connector, 2 PCI-E connectors, 8-pin MB connecter. I was also impressed that Corsair put the PSU in that sleeve thing. Seemed like kind of a waste imo, but a nice touch.
Next comes installation of the PSU.
This picture shows no bent pins! Keep this in mind!
CPU picture, Batch # L312B326
And the poor excuse for stock cooling.
CPU installed.
Time for my pride and joy, the Corsair H100i! I was really looking forward to using this cooler.
Installation of the backplate, and the front pins. Yes, I really used a socket drive to snug them up.
While going out into the shed to grab the socket driver from my "OH Shit" tool set, I found this smaller LED flashlight in my explorer. Much easier to use the the large thing I had been attempting to use.
Unfortunately, the H100i has bent fins right out of the box. I was torn between RMA'ing it, or trying to use it.
I was pretty frustrated at the bent fins problem, so I went to install the front panel connectors.
No spots for 1394 on my MB, though the plug CAN fit into the USB connector. I assume that that would not work?
Installing the audio plug for the front panel. I don't know what the difference between AC '97 and HDMI is, so I opted to use the HDMI connector.
Back to the H100i. I noticed that the two 8-pin connectors on the MB might conflict with the mounting of the radiator and fans. They did.
The radiator is much closer than it looks, and the fans could not be mounted on that side.
I tried to mount the fans on the other side of the mesh, on top of the radiator. Had this been successful, the fans would have been pulling fresh air from outside the case and pushing it through the rad (as an intake). Unfortunately, as seen of my build thread...
From my experience, corsair 600t is not ideal for 240mm radiator. The top grate gets in the way of mounting fans close to the radiator. As a result, you get more noise but less cooling performance.
I wasnt worried about that, because I had planned on mounting the rad on the bottom, as an exhaust. But with the combination of the 600T case and the Z87 chipset, this could not happen due to the location of the 8-pin power connectors. /Sigh
So, I wasnt going to let this hold me back. I went ahead and installed the stock cooler, and decided to wait on OC'ing until my Noctua NH-D14 came in.
This is Fiesty, sleeping on my chair. Yes, he really does sleep like that.
So, I installed my GTX 285 (not shown), and tried to post. Lo and Behold, No Post. Well, that sucked. It finally dawned on my to check the debug code on the little indicator - debug code 55, early memory initialization. The manual provided no more explanation than that. So I put my VC back into my old rig, booted that up, and resolved to do some googling.
From what I read, the problem was either bad MB, old BIOS, bad RAM, bad CPU, or bent pins. Clearly I needed to do some more diagnosis on my own.
First things first, can I post with one stick of RAM? Yes, I could! So I went ahead and installed Windows 8 (which I love, btw), and updated the MB BIOS. Shut down, installed all 4 sticks again, and still no joy. Error Code 55.
Next, I tried different RAM slots. I quickly learned that I only had the error when using the second channel for the RAM (right 2 DIMM slots). Well, that ruled out RAM and BIOS as the issue. There is only one more thing that I can do to narrow this down, and that was to check for bent CPU Socket pins. I had nothing else to test the MB or CPU on.
Sure enough, there was a bent pin.
I still don't know how that pin got bent. I do know that in trying to fix it, I bent several other pins! Man, what a PAIN!
I eventually went to Walmart and got a small 5x magnifying glass w/ a build in LED, and some sowing needles. It took me several hours to finally get everything the way I wanted, but in the end, they were all straight.
I poped the CPU back in, took it out, and checked the pins for the umpteenth time. YES!! NO MORE BENT PINS!!! Put the CPU back in, with some fresh Antec thermal paste from the local Best Buy, and everything works like a charm!
So far, the MSI Command Center works well. I love how I can control all of my fans from the CC software (MB has connectors for 2 CPU fans and 3 SYS fans). However, the integrated RAMDisk software is absolutely HORRIBLE! I played with it for hours and never got it to work properly. I ended up downloading and using DataRAM RAMDisk, which works like a charm.
I still like the 600t case, but had I known that the H100i would not fit w/ a Z87 chipset, that the plastic tabs holding the panels on were so brittle (2 have broken off while I tried to remove the from plastic panel), and that I would not be using the integrated fan controller I would have gone with another option. What I do really like though is that since it has 2 200mm fans, I only have and only need 3 case fans, and I can run them all from my MB and control them from MSI CC, as previously stated. This also makes cable management easier.
One thing I am concerned about is the NH-D14 fitting over my current RAM. The heatsinks on the RAM sticks are not particular large or tall, so I'm hoping they ft right over the cooler. If not, I will remove the RAM coolers. I do not suspect that these RAM sticks will be getting very hot with the airflow in this case.
I will update then I get the GTX 780, NH-D14, and additional HDDs and fans installed!
Shout Out to Lia, Love ya girl
Last edited:
I feel for you, same thing happened to me in the past - the most frustrating one was with my Maximus III Formula P55 (RAMs only worked on single channel). 
